Animals, especially dogs, enjoy chewing hard objects. As animals receive a number of benefits from chewing hard objects, a multitude of digestible animal chew products exists. However, many ingredients used in conventional animal chews cause allergic reactions. For instance, most conventional animal chews contain such ingredients as wheat, gluten, corn, soy, milk, whey, casein, beef, pork, chicken or artificial flavors and colors. Recent studies show that approximately 20-50% of dogs are allergic to such ingredients. Further, some conventional animal chews can also contain animal products such as rawhide, bull penises (bully sticks), pig ears or pig snouts which can cause serious infections and stain animal owners' carpeting and furniture. Other conventional animal chews use synthetic materials such as ethylene copolymers, nylon and rubber. However, these materials can be swallowed whole or in part by animals, causing discomfort and/or injury to the animals' digestive tract. Conventional animal chews often contain highly refined starches, fats and animal digests, resulting in high calorie, low fiber products. Conventional animal chews are typically manufactured using high temperature injection molding, compression molding and/or baking. However, high temperatures destroy most nutrients and compression frequently requires palatability enhancers.
Therefore, a need exists for a nutritious, digestible animal product made without animal by-products, highly processed ingredients or synthetic materials.